Part I

I regret to be compelled to report that the Men’s Missionary movement, upon which were laid strong hopes for the future, has not fulfilled the purpose and promise of its creation. No new leagues, so far as I know, have been organized, and those formerly begun have not made themselves felt in any gratifying degree. It is to be feared that most of them, if not all have died, and that the cause of death was starvation. Such organizations must be fed with something to do, or else they quickly perish. It is to be suspected, at any rate, that the defunct laymen’s movement was too strongly inoculated with the disease that afflicts many men in our church, “Do-nothing-ism,” and so died untimely, “unhonored, and unsung,” even if by a few churchmen grievously lamented. It is certain no truthful tombstone dare lift head of praise above its microscopic dust. Still there is always chance of resurrection for everything connected with the Church and her risen Lord. It is to be hoped, therefore, even if Hope clings perilously to the edge of Despair, that something can yet be done, some scheme hatched out, some bolt of energy shot forth, that will summon the movement from its grave, and cause it to take on a better, stronger life than it had at first – a life widening, deepening, and extending into all our Parishes, and even into our smallest, feeblest Missions.

(Source: The Rev. George M. Tolson, Report of the Archdeacon of Raleigh, 1907 Journal of Convention, 130-31)